Why is Louisiana's incarceration rate so high? (1 Viewer)

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For those of you who haven't heard, we topped the list again.

And what I mean by the question is, if the New Orleans attorney general's office is so woefully inadequate at securing convictions, and assuming that New Orleans crime represents a significant portion of the statewide total, how did all these people wind up in jail? Are B.R., Lafayette, et al. also that bad off?

Honest question.
 
The incarceration rate is so high here because Edwards showed everyone how to make money on locking people up.

Look around, almost every parish now has a detention center where they house state inmates.

The federal government pays the state x amount of dollars a day for each inmate in the system. If the jailer can house the inmate for less than that then the jailer can make a profit. Ever wonder why these prisons all have farms? They grow there own food thus maximizing profits.

If people werent getting rich off of this crap they wouldn't be locking up petty drug offenders and such at such a high rate.
 
My guess is there are a lot of criminals but its only a guess.
 
First off, in New Orleans it is the DA's office that prosecutes.

There are so many in jail because prior to Katrina New Orleans had the largest accumulation of Poverty in the United States. Crime is a continuing problem and even though Eddie Jordan couldn't prosecute a crime even when the criminal ran to his house immediately after the crime (which did happen), other surrounding parishes, like Jefferson do prosecute.

Also, before Jordan and now after him, 701 releases are only being given in very small numbers, so prosecution is back up.

Bottom line, there are a lot of criminals, proportionately higher than many other areas, therefore, a lot of detention facilities to hold them.
 
its not high enough. criminals are given suspended sentences pretty regularly in opelousas, just to come back and commit the same crime.
 
First off, in New Orleans it is the DA's office that prosecutes.

Yeah, that was a typo/lack of sleep error.


I find poonami's answer to be the most intuitively correct. I tend to think of things in economic terms, and I guess the whole "look to him who would benefit" theme of poonami's post to be the most likely correct answer (of course I know we also have more than our fair share of criminals).

I actually know a little bit more about this than my original post would suggest, but I also find it interesting that the U.S. as a whole has the highest incarceration rate in the world.

Do you think this has to do with what poonami said, the jailing of minor drug offenders? The USA, in terms of murders, has one ninth the rate per capita of columbia. I guess our police are just more effective?

A little of the main point, but I also found a study that showed that crime went up in counties/parishes with higher income levels, which was attributed to better policing/more police presence. Could it be that the U.S., as a rich, violent country, just has better police? Kind of obvious, I know.

Thoughts?


edit: sorry inet, I didn't mean to brush off your post, I know the 701 releases have gone down, but do you think that has significantly affected this year's rating? Jordan hasn't been out that long that the DA's office has completely cleaned up its act, or has he?

edited again for clarity.
 
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Yeah, that was a typo/lack of sleep error.


I find poonami's answer to be the most intuitively correct. I tend to think of things in economic terms, and I guess the whole "look to him who would benefit" theme of poonami's post to be the most likely correct answer (of course I know we also have more than our fair share of criminals).

I actually know a little bit more about this than my original post would suggest, but I also find it interesting that the U.S. as a whole has the highest incarceration rate in the world.

Do you think this has to do with what poonami said, the jailing of minor drug offenders? The USA, in terms of murders, has one ninth the rate per capita of columbia. I guess our police are just more effective?

A little of the main point, but I also found a study that showed that crime went up in counties/parishes with higher income levels, which was attributed to better policing/more police presence. Could it be that the U.S., as a rich, violent country, just has better police? Kind of obvious, I know.

Thoughts?


edit: sorry inet, I didn't mean to brush off your post, I know the 701 releases have gone down, but do you think that has significantly affected this year's rating? Jordan hasn't been out that long that the DA's office has completely cleaned up its act, or has he?

edited again for clarity.

Actually there have been convictions occurring on a regular basis since Jordan's forced departure. He was only getting a conviction rate of 5 or 6 percent if I remember right. Police Chief was quoted yesterday saying people they are arresting are staying in jail now. The cop on the street isn't hearing "I'll see you in 60 days," from the punks they are arresting like they used to.

The U.S. crime rate is high compared to any other developed nation. Columbia obviously has high crime rates due to the drug trade.

The whole look for the conspiracy thing sounds nice, but if you've watched New Orleans over the last six or seven years, it's much more simple than that.

Kind of hard to judge incarceration rates when violent offenders have been walking on multiple offenses.

As to crime going up in parishes with higher income, I don't buy that for a second.

Break it down into neighborhoods. Do you honestly think there are more arrests and/or crime in English Turn than in Central City?
 
Nice to know, again, that we're first in the bad things and last in the good things.
 
As to crime going up in parishes with higher income, I don't buy that for a second.

Break it down into neighborhoods. Do you honestly think there are more arrests and/or crime in English Turn than in Central City?

No, I know that. I think the idea behind it was, richer localities have a higher police presence on the whole, so crimes are reported more often. I'm sure the bad neighborhoods still represent a much higher proportion of the crime.

study here-
http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/57764/1/Hull%20B%20-%202000%20-%20Religion%20Still%20Matters%20-%20JoE.pdf
 
The whole look for the conspiracy thing sounds nice, but if you've watched New Orleans over the last six or seven years, it's much more simple than that.

Kind of hard to judge incarceration rates when violent offenders have been walking on multiple offenses.

sorry for again ignoring part of your post in my original response, but don't these two statements kind of contradict each other, in the context of this discussion?
 
are you kidding??

The incarceration rate is so high here because Edwards showed everyone how to make money on locking people up.

Look around, almost every parish now has a detention center where they house state inmates.

The federal government pays the state x amount of dollars a day for each inmate in the system. If the jailer can house the inmate for less than that then the jailer can make a profit. Ever wonder why these prisons all have farms? They grow there own food thus maximizing profits.

If people werent getting rich off of this crap they wouldn't be locking up petty drug offenders and such at such a high rate.

i dont care if people are getting rich, do you think petty drug offenders shouldn't be getting locked up? most of the time petty drug offenders become felony drug offenders.
 
i dont care if people are getting rich, do you think petty drug offenders shouldn't be getting locked up? most of the time petty drug offenders become felony drug offenders.

grossly inaccurate, from personal experience. the market can only sustain so many big-time dealers. most arrests are for possession.

i am not a drug user, but i do tend to favor legalization/ lightening of minimum sentence requirements.

see this quote:

"These official stats surprised even me. Back in 1980, State correctional facilities had 9 violent criminals for every drug offender.

By 2003, that ratio was 2.6:1. Clearly, the War on Drugs launched during my teen years was not just rhetoric - and though the War on Terror has crowded out rhetoric about the War on Drugs, the reality continues"


EconLog, Ratio of Violent to Drug Offenders in Jail, Bryan Caplan: Library of Economics and Liberty
 
sorry for again ignoring part of your post in my original response, but don't these two statements kind of contradict each other, in the context of this discussion?

No. The point is if incarceration was the object due to a profit motive, then there would have been a more concerted effort to incarcerate them from the government over the last 7 years or so.

I think what you are asking in a roundabout way in this thread is whether minor drug offenses should end in jail sentences.

My point is this doesn't really apply in LA anyway. Unless the minor charge was the conviction when a major charge failed.
 
No. The point is if incarceration was the object due to a profit motive, then there would have been a more concerted effort to incarcerate them from the government over the last 7 years or so.

I think what you are asking in a roundabout way in this thread is whether minor drug offenses should end in jail sentences.

My point is this doesn't really apply in LA anyway. Unless the minor charge was the conviction when a major charge failed.

no, the original point of this thread had nothing to do with drug offenders. it was really just a question based on the prosecution rate vs. incarceration rate.

nobody has answered my question about crime in the rest of the state,so i guess i'll just have to look up the stats myself.


edit: ok, got it. each of the major cities in LA (monroe, shreveport, baton rouge, lafayette, lake charles, alexandria, and of course new orleans) is at least as dangerous as houston, which itself has an abnormally high crime rate. suspected that, but wasn't sure.
 
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